ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRIME MINISTER KAY RALA XANANA GUSMÃO AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

Excellency, Anote Tong, President of the
Republic of Kiribati

Excellency, Gordon Darcy Lilo, Prime Minister
of the Solomon Islands

Excellency, Minister Emilia Pires, Member of
the High Level Panel

Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Special Envoy of
H.E. President of the Republic of Indonesia

Dr. Oluremi Gabriel Sogunro, Advisor to H.E.
President of the Republic of Liberia

Dr. David Hallam, on behalf of the Office of
the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Honourable Ministers of the ‘g7+’ and the
Pacific Nations and PALOPs

Excellency, Dr. Noeleen Heyzer,
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and

Executive Secretary of ESCAP

Distinguished Members of Parliament and
Government

Ambassadors

Representatives of the Church, Civil Society
and the Private Sector

Distinguished guests

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is
an honour to welcome you all, on behalf of the Government and the People of Timor-Leste,
to this International Conference. I would like to give a special welcome to our
227 international guests, who have travelled from all over the world to
participate in this conference. It is a privilege to have such a distinguished
group of international leaders, developmentexperts, academics, representatives
of civil society and the private sector, here with us, in Timor-Leste.I believe we come together with common goals
– to eradicate poverty and to contribute to world peace. Speaking of peace, I
returned yesterday from South Korea where I participated in a World Summit on
“Peace, Security and Human Development”. There, in Seoul, I informed the plenary
that we would be gathered here today to discuss the post-2015 Development
Agenda. The Millennium Development Goals, which were launched in 2000, have
helped us on the path to development, but some countries – many of the world’s
poorest countries – have been left behind. This is why, over the next two days,
we have to speak. We have to be prepared to listen to what is good and what is
bad, what was successful and what provoked stagnation or failure, in each one
of our countries and in the larger family of the Least Developed Countries
(LDCs). As we approach 2015, there is not one LDC (fragile or conflict affected
nation) in the world that has achieved even a single Millennium Development
Goal. We are all here in the spirit of learning, from each other and to support
each other, to change the course of events, in each one of our countries and in
our relations with the international community. Over 1.5 billion people live in
fragility and conflict affected nations. This is almost twenty per cent of
humanity. What we have learnt in Timor-Leste, from experience, is that
development cannot be achieved without security, without peace. We had to stop
fighting among ourselves and learn to reconcile our differences peacefully,
before we could even begin to properly address the Millennium Development
Goals. That is why we believe that addressing global fragility is one of the
most pressing development challenges of our time. Together, we must change the
mindsets of development policies. We must work out why, with all the efforts
and aid, from donor countries and international organisations, there is still
so much poverty in the world. And we must explore how – in this modern and
globalised world – mainstream economic theories are imposed on, or absorbed by,
the poor and the weak when these theories cause such harm and only serve the
interest of the strong and powerful. But, firstly, we have the obligation to
look at ourselves, to the errors that we have committed, to the setbacks that
we may have caused in our own processes. Only in this way, will we be able to
guide our future plans, with a realistic roadmap of practical actions.

Ladies
and gentlemen

With
the MDGs soon to expire, the world community has the opportunity to set new priorities,
and a new vision, for years beyond 2015. We embark upon this task at a time of
global uncertainty. Along with conflict and fragility, the world is
experiencing increasing inequality. We are seeing global wealth concentrated in
the hands of a few, while many remain in extreme poverty.

And
too often the poverty – and the conflict – of powerless nations benefit the
powerful nations. And so, poor people continue to suffer. And unemployment
around the world continues to rise. And with lack of jobs comes criminality and
conflict. We must not continue to pretend that inequality and conflict are
unrelated. That is why, Timor-Leste is so committed to the ‘g7+’ group of
fragile and conflict affected nations. This group of 18 nations works in
solidarity, and speaks with one voice, to build peace and strengthen our
States. But now, we need more than 18 countries working together, we need the
whole global community focused on achieving agreed goals. Yesterday, our
brothers and sisters from the Pacific Islands came together to make their voice
heard. We will hear their message today. They are 13 and adding the voices of
five PALOPs nations, with the development partners, we have here a total of 48
nations, one quarter of UN Member States. Together, we can have a powerful voice.

Ladies and gentlemen

We
must now not only look at the future, we must shape the future. Now is the time
for discussion about what has been working in the past and what we should do to
secure our shared future.

As you
know, the UN Secretary-General has established a High Level Panel. Two days
ago, I participated in the inauguration
ceremony of the President of South Korea, Mrs. Park Geun-hye and I could see
the pride in the Korean people’s eyes. We too are proud of having a Timorese
woman on the UN High Level Panel. We trust in her, because we know how much she
is doing to reform our system, how much she gives to the ‘g7+’ to change bad
practices of development aid and how strong she has been in the process of
State building.

Ladies
and Gentlemen

The
results of our discussions at this Conference will feed into the UN High Level
Panel Report to the Secretary General. And so, I urge you all to participate,
to share your views and work together. This is why the agenda of the Conference
is so interactive. It has break-out sessions designed to allow everyone to
participate and to allow everyone to be heard. We must remember that great
ideas can come from the most unexpected of places. They can come from the
youngest person or from the smallest nation. And while many of you are from
places where your voices are rarely heard on the global stage, they are places
that the world must listen to for the post-2015 development agenda to have a
real meaning. That is why the theme of the Conference is n‘Development for
All’. And so, while we must be practical
in our contributions, this does not mean we cannot be ambitious. We must not
forget that peace building and State building are critical to establishing a foundation,
on which to eradicate poverty and achieve our development goals.

Excellencies

Ladies
and Gentlemen

Thank
you for attending this Conference. I would like to give a special thanks to our
generous supporters who have made this conference possible, the Pacific
Institute of Public Policy, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific, AusAID and the g7+. Here, we are all among friends,
among brothers and sisters. I hope that the ideas discussed, and the onversations we take part in, will inspire us
all and will unite us. I look forward to joining with you over the next two
days and trust that this will be an important and productive conference, in
shaping the global vision post-2015. I wish you all very participatory
discussions!